2007- 2008 The Great Michigan READ The Nick Adams Stories by Ernest Hemingway Board of Directors MHC Staff Judith Ann Rapanos, Midland - Chair Janice Fedewa Christine Albertini, Grand Rapids Executive Director Anan Ameri, Dearborn Elizabeth Brooks, Detroit Cynthia Dimitrijevic Marlee Brown, Mackinac Island Grants Director Timothy J. Chester, Grand Rapids Russell B. Collins, Ann Arbor Scott Hirko Amy DeWys-VanHecke, Grosse Pointe Farms Public Relations Officer Paula Gangopadhyay, Plymouth James J. Karshner, DeWitt Greg Parker Patrick LeBeau, Lansing Program & Development Michael Margolin, Detroit Officer MichiganMichigan People,People, MichiganMichigan PlacesPlaces OurOur Stories,tories, Ourur Livesives Sue Ann Martin, Mt. Pleasant Craig McDonald, Midland Phyllis Rathbun 119 Pere Marquette John X. Miller, West Bloomfield Executive Assistant Suite 3B Shaun Nethercott, Detroit Lansing, MI 48912-1270 Erik Nordberg, Houghton Nancy Wireman Patricia Shaheen, Saginaw Administrative Assistant (517) 372-7770 Karen Smith, Traverse City michiganhumanities.org Kelvin Smyth, Escanaba Jennifer Wise Fiscal Officer None of it was important now. The wind Welcome to blew it out of his head. (“The Three Day The Great Michigan Read Blow”) n July 9, the Michigan Humanities Council announced the selection of Ernest Hemingway’s The Nick Adams Stories for the first-ever Great Michigan O Read. The Nick Adams Stories chronicles a young man’s coming of age in a series of linked short stories. Nick’s path to adulthood is shaped by his Michigan surroundings and presents a timeless look at the human condition. Most of the Nick Adams stories are set in Michigan. This includes “Big Two-Hearted River,” which many argue captures the essence of the Michigan outdoor experience. After reviewing scores of Michigan titles and authors, the Council’s book selection committee selected The Nick Adams Stories based on its broad appeal, its relevance to current life, and its undoubtedly “classic” status. This title presents an accessible entry point for first-time literature readers, yet will challenge the most advanced bibliophiles. For the next year, as hundreds of thousands of Michiganians open their copies of The Nick Adams Stories, readers will be introduced or reacquainted with a classic piece of American literature. get involved! read events website exhibits grants How can I become involved? Visit the Up North with the Hemingways exhibit at the Crooked Tree Arts Center July 27-August 25, Read The Nick Adams Stories. Books available at 2007. A traveling version will tour 28 Michigan Meijer, Barnes & Noble, Schuler Books & Music, communities through June 2008. Visit Borders, your local library, independent www.greatmichiganread.org for tour schedule. booksellers, and online. Tune in to Michigan Talk Network for live Great Learn more about the book and the author. Start Michigan Read radio programming. Visit with the reader’s guide or link to www.greatmichiganread.org for local stations, dates, www.greatmichiganread.org for background on Ernest and times. Hemingway, his Michigan connections, his publications, and other information. Listen to The Nick Adams Stories audiobook on your commute. Available at Meijer, Barnes & Discuss the book. Share your thoughts about the Noble, Schuler Books & Music, Borders, and book with friends, family, colleagues, or your other retail locations. Also available online. reading group. Explore discussion themes in the reader’s guide or online at Give a copy of The Nick Adams Stories to a www.greatmichiganread.org. friend, family member, or colleague. Spread the word and share a literary reading experience with Attend a Great Michigan Read program or event. others! Check www.greatmichiganread.org for a complete schedule of events and programs. With more than Start a book discussion group. Book discussions 100 participating communities, there’s bound to be can be informal and fun. Encourage your family, one near you. If not, encourage your library to friends, neighbors, coworkers, or church to read participate. the book, gather in small groups, and discuss. The Great Michigan Read 1 They were seated in the boat, Nick in the stern, his father rowing. The sun was of American adults reading literature has declined from coming up over the hills. (“Indian Camp”) 56.9 percent to 46.7 percent. Clearly, it’s timely that we forge ahead with introducing Michigan citizens to a literary masterpiece Experience Michigan Through that was literally made in Michigan. From July 2007 to July 2008, reading and discussion programs, a traveling The Nick Adams Stories Hemingway exhibit, speakers, interpreters, essay contests, and many more creative programs will grace the state as Jan Fedewa, Executive Director & Judy Rapanos, Chair, we introduce Nick Adams to youth through seniors. The Michigan Humanities Council Council will provide the necessary resources to complement the reading program such as a reader’s guide, a dedicated website, posters, bookmarks, a he experience of being Up North, the woods, the documentary along with a study guide, and more. water, and the outdoors will be enjoyed by T thousands of Michigan residents as they participate Join us and spend time rediscovering in The Great Michigan Read, a one-book, one-state Hemingway, the woods, the water, and The Nick initiative featuring Ernest Hemingway’s The Nick Adams Adams Stories. It will help you reconnect to your Stories. stories about place, family, and coming of age. All the love went into fishing and the summer. He loved it more than anything. He had loved digging potatoes with Bill in the fall, the long trips in the car, fishing in the Bay, reading in the hammock on hot days, swimming off the dock, playing baseball at Charlevoix and Petoskey . the fishing trips away from the farm, just lying around.He loved the long summer. - Ernest Hemingway, “On Writing,” The Nick Adams Stories The Council is pleased to present Ernest Hemingway and his works to Michigan citizens. It is an outstanding opportunity for people to connect to the past, the present, and the future as they explore the many themes presented in the book . coming of age, father-son relationships, war, love, family, fishing, camping, hunting, nature, and more. The Great Michigan Read is the outcome of the Council’s Strategic Plan to embrace a Council-led program that has statewide impact. After a series of Program Committee meetings, the Council elected to implement a one-book, one-state initiative that includes granting opportunities for libraries, cultural organizations, museums, schools, and other non-profits that participate in its implementation. Its purpose is to promote literary reading to help create an educated and engaged society. According to a report recently released by the National Endowment for the Arts, literature reading is fading as a meaningful activity, especially among younger people. Less than half of the adult American population Young Hemingway with his catch. Photo courtesy of the Hemingway Collection now reads literature. From 1982 to 2002, the percentage at the John F. Kennedy Library, Boston. 2 Michigan Humanities Council His eye ached and he was hungry. He kept on hiking, putting the miles of track back of him. (“The Battler”) the same today as in the story? What did he change? And, others come to the stories at the literary level. They will look at how he captured relationships, people, and nature. What do his stories tell us about who we are today? The stories are eternal. Young people always react when they experience death for the first time. Others wonder if “that’s all there is” in a marriage or relationship. Young Hemingway at Horton Creek, 1904. Photo courtesy of the Clarke Historical Library and Jim Sanford. Young people look at the stories from their perspective and as they grow older, they look at them A Conversation with through a different lens of lived experiences. How do The Nick Adams Stories relate to Hemingway Michael Federspiel developing as an author? I think Hemingway discovered his style in The Nick Adams Stories. He had a whole memory bank of his he MHC interviewed Michigan Hemingway experiences, and he used this when creating The Nick Society President Mike Federspiel for insight about Adams Stories. He worked more deliberately with these T Michigan’s cultural connection to Ernest stories than perhaps anything else he wrote. There isn’t a Hemingway. Federspiel, a former ninth-grade English word there that isn’t supposed to be there. The Nick teacher who once assigned Hemingway’s The Old Man Adams Stories helped to determine his style for the rest of and the Sea, has a biographical connection to The Nick his career. Adams Stories through his own summer vacations in the Petoskey area. What can we expect to see at the Up North with the Hemingways exhibit at the Crooked Tree Arts Center? What does Hemingway mean to Michigan? You’ll see a number of artifacts associated with To many people, Hemingway’s Michigan Ernest and his family including a six-page letter to Jim connections are a surprise. They typically associate him Gamble from Ernest Hemingway with exotic places around the world rather than our state. in 1919 in which Gamble is urged to come to Northern Michigan. It What did Michigan mean to Hemingway? is his best letter describing Hemingway was inspired by place. Young Ernest Michigan. There is a postcard he Hemingway was captured by exotic Northern Michigan; sent his father in 1919 on a trip it excited his sense of adventure and his imagination. As from Seney, which inspired “Big a young person, experiences here helped to form who he Two-Hearted River,” and an became. He later used the settings and the people of unpublished handwritten story he Northern Michigan for inspiration. In the 1920s, when wrote in high school about a he sat in cafés in Paris, France, he returned to Kalkaska, lumber camp.